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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29341947">When the Clouds Clear</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafe_au_late/pseuds/cafe_au_late'>cafe_au_late</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuro_Ko/pseuds/Kuro_Ko'>Kuro_Ko</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinaLuthor/pseuds/LinaLuthor'>LinaLuthor</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingwithmolls/pseuds/writingwithmolls'>writingwithmolls</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Gay, edelgrid, hellaGayForMoni, they are lesbians your honor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:46:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,228</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29341947</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafe_au_late/pseuds/cafe_au_late, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuro_Ko/pseuds/Kuro_Ko, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinaLuthor/pseuds/LinaLuthor, https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingwithmolls/pseuds/writingwithmolls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Edelgard and Ingrid are together in college, though their relationship is an unstable one because of themselves and the circumstances around them. After a breakup they're forced to face the storms, the parts of their lives that are hindering their growth. </p>
<p>A few years later, a chance meeting offers hope of a better, brighter future to come.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Edelgard von Hresvelg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When the Clouds Clear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sephirron/gifts">Sephirron</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The city has changed and yet remains the same. Buildings have changed color, stores have come and go, some streets have switched direction, and yet the essence of the city remains the same. Edelgard looks at Garreg Mach, at the downtown bustling with activity, and a smile finds its way to her lips.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard hasn’t visited Garreg Mach in years. She evaded it, always putting up excuses when her work requested her to go to the city. Always smiling and declining invitations that included an old home she felt could open her wounds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A city that has known how to hurt her, how to torment her. It has been a never-ending storm, one that opens the skies in agony and takes all from her. A city whose skies, when cleared, have washed away what she had held dear to her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard looks at the clear, blue skies of Garreg Mach and her chest fills with the crisp air of the Oghma mountains and the wind she hasn’t felt in so long and remembers so well. She had been alone for those last years, hurting every hour, missing the warmth of Ingrid’s arms in the nights even when she didn’t need to pull an all nighter to finish a project and yet, she couldn’t sleep at all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The city has changed and has not, just as Edelgard has.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She opens the door of the car she has been leaning against to watch the city and starts it again. Edelgard hasn’t been in Garreg Mach in years, but the city is embedded in her mind, mapped in her brain as a language she learned to speak and never forgot. The wounds still lie underneath her skin and she has been afraid, but not anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She's changed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She can look at her old wounds and realize they have scarred, they have faded. They can hurt, but they will not end her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They will not define her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The traffic is heavy, slow and thick, yet she has time. The rental office won’t go anywhere. For the first time in maybe forever she isn’t the one tapping the wheel and mumbling under her breath at the long lines of unmoving cars. She’s on holiday, she has free time. She’s sure that Hubert will keep everything under control.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Besides, if she tries to log into work he will revoke her access and privileges.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She knows this city, and this city knows her. She knows where the best bakery is, the coffee shop they used to love, the best sweets she can buy. Garreg Mach knows of this and it’s kind enough as to make everything remain the same as she remembers from her dear memories.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard thought the city would open her wounds again, it would jab her heart and cut her side, looking for what she had been and what could still be there. But there isn’t anything to pick and destroy layer by layer. Edelgard has changed. She’s a new person, or rather she’s what she thought she was those years ago.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She can even take a detour and grab something before arriving at her place for the next two weeks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She takes a right easily into a parking lot. From there, it is only a short walk to her favorite bakery in the whole city.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her wounds have closed, her scars have faded. She’s learned from them, she’s paid the price.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She lost, yes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But she found something that was maybe more valuable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the years that followed, Edelgard had found herself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She closes the door absentmindedly, taking her purse with her and humming a song that goes along with her carefree smile. Maybe she’ll enjoy some sweet pastries that she hasn’t eaten in years and perhaps some bergamot tea. The right recipe for a perfect afternoon before she hits the road once more and follows an itinerary she had Hubert and Dorothea approve.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The car beeps loudly at the same time her humming stops, her body frozen half way through a motion that seems so mundane and now she can’t recall how to complete it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid is looking at her with the same wide, shocked eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The same green she had loved under the once-stormy skies of Garreg Mach.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The same green that had seemingly flourished in the face of a storm, never wilting.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Silence had become the calm between storms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn't always like that, Ingrid mused as she shook her head and glanced outside, at the beautiful late spring day that would turn into summer in a few days. Often the quiet meant they were both admiring the sunlight which slanted into the room, over the table they were sharing and the books which stood in neat little piles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The sunbeams that fell upon their relationship and brought laughter and joy with it, just like the students who foolishly chuckled and yelled, playing a game of tag with their friends outside of Edelgard's quarters. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sometimes the quiet was a respite, the starkly blue sky on an autumn afternoon that was comforting while they made their way into the college kitchen and tried their best to cook something together, though Ingrid was more familiar with it than Edelgard would ever be. The silence would soon be broken then not by the clattering of pans and ingredients, of mugs being taken to the microwave or the humming of said machine, but by their snickers at how badly they could follow a recipe—and the dubious results they got when it was done. After one minute of doubt and ten of them laughing—stealing kisses while stirring and holding hands as they waited—their final result was individual mug cakes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And more often than not and just as it was the case on that day, the silence was a spring afternoon that was preparing to burst into sound, or heavy rain clouds that gathered before a storm, breaking the piercing blue sky and framing it with blacks and grays.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At least that was Ingrid's mind on that particular occasion, the notebook in front of her and the book on her lap offering her no respite, no cool breeze to take away from the heat of her thoughts. The room was quiet, safe from the humming of the air conditioner and the rustling of leaves while her and Edelgard studied—or tried to— for their finals a few days away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The room was hushed but her mind was thundering, a storm within itself and with no warning, no reason to be other than the fact that she sensed something in the air. Something to her girlfriend's demeanor that was off, jittery and nervous when El was usually still, determined and set.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For moments they simply stood like that at the cramped, sunlit table that faced the window, that faced the freedom they were keeping themselves from and went on studying instead. Both knew the session was useless, that there was something weighing heavily in their minds, something that kept them from focusing on the task at hand. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So when Edelgard opened her mouth to speak, Ingrid was already turned towards her, expecting the storm to ebb into her voice as it had been doing recently. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Expecting the downpour and the thunder that had marked some of the last few days due to stress, fatigue, work, upcoming exams, the conclusion of Ingrid's internship, and the beginning of El's career as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When nothing but a slight drizzle came, one that soothed her burning skin and the red hot anticipation of yet another fight, the blonde found herself blinking in surprise and wondering why she had already assumed the worst. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ingrid, I… I know this is sudden and we should be paying attention to other, more important matters," the smaller girl began, motioning to the books around them—piling up on the floor—with an offhand flourish, "but well the term is almost done with."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Thankfully yeah," Ingrid retorted after too many seconds of silence, unsure of where the conversation was going and what sort of answer Edelgard was expecting from her anyways. One too many times her silence had led into a fight, or her words had tempted the thunder that had been hiding and lying in wait.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"And uh… my father went a little overboard with the birthday gift thing as well, saying I should celebrate surviving second year and oh—why not get out of Garreg Mach for a few days at the very least?" Edelgard gushed, her lilac eyes wide with excitement and something smug, some pride behind those words. "So he gave me tickets to visit Derdriu for the week after our tests."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid turned with a smile, genuinely happy for her girlfriend even though a part of her wished she could go as well. Not that her parents would ever allow her to, the possibility of them buying her a ticket close to null; and her income as an intern would never be enough to cover for it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"That's amazing, El. I'm really glad you'll be able to go and destress, too. This term's been crazy and your work as well… it's what you deserve, really." Ingrid beamed, a hand weaving itself through Edelgard's hair. "I'll miss you though, but when will you be going?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The smile on her lips died away at the sight of El's frown, her expression mirroring her girlfriend's even before something else could be said. A second later, one before Ingrid could wonder if a storm was coming, the skies cleared once more and became the stark blue that she loved, the clear lilac she had fallen in love with so fast.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Oh. No, no Ingrid, I'm not uh… wait." She stopped, unsure of how to go on. Then her hands went to the mobile which was lying on her lap and her fingers rapidly tapped on the screen, the blonde leaning in so she could watch what was happening. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her emerald irises widening in surprise when not one, but two tickets flashed on the screen and the second one had her name printed on it as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Will you uh… would you like to come with me?" El asked, her expression serene and hopeful, no trace of a thunder or a cloud behind it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No trace of the irritation that had etched her features one too many times. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid needed no time to answer and simply flung herself into Edelgard's arms, taking her by surprise with the gesture and the small pecks that were placed on her smooth cheeks. That was an answer by itself, though the blonde was eager to mumble yes a thousand times, the books in front of them forgotten and set aside for the time being.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That spring afternoon had ended sweeter than it had started, without any promise of rain in sight. The tempest ended up coming later, from her own head instead of the girl who stood beside her and had offered her a plane ticket for free.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And the tempest was called a stream of lies, each raindrop a memory from the times she had needed to tell her parents in the long, but not so distant past. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid had never been a storyteller, never one to weave a web of stories and universes that would offer her shelter from her parents' whims. More often than not as she grew up she denied herself the opportunity to get away and attend a party, a movie night or the such because the sheer thought of having to answer countless questions and spin a tale that she would more likely forget in the long run seemed too much of a stretch to go for in order to live like… well, like what her friends and society at large would call a normal teenager. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As a result she had stayed sheltered, outwardly obedient while inwardly fuming. The storm needed to be contained or else the reaction from Mr. and Mrs. Galatea would be worse, would make her drown in their own woes and words and accusations thrown her way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>College had offered her a breath of fresh air, time spent away from her family and the control of their orders. It had allowed her to attend as many parties and movie nights as she had wanted to as long as she answered their texts and calls without raising suspicion. And sure, a flight per se wouldn't be too much of a change—in the end there was no way for them to tell where she was and what she was doing after all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The problem would be justifying why she would be unavailable for some of their calls and more likely than not some of their messages, too. And given their tendency to fret and demand her immediate attention no matter what, not answering them as Edelgard suggested had never been an option to begin with. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If usually she would ponder over the need to lie to her parents and to go do what was being asked or offered to her, this time there was no hesitation, no question that it was exactly what she wanted to do. The look upon her girlfriend's face had been enough to melt her heart, to remind her of times where there had been no rain, no black or even grey clouds cluttering the horizons around them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was something she wanted to hold on to, to never let go and not let her family have any say in anymore. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And so she wove a tale with Edelgard's help, one that spoke of visiting a college friend since they had spoken about an older brother or another… someone that could be looking for a wife in Ingrid's line of work. She had hated it and seen the annoyed look on El's face, the staple knit eyebrows and narrowed lilac irises. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The face she always had on when Ingrid had to lie about having a partner, about </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>being said partner, too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But they both knew it was necessary, a needed lie so they would be free. The last streak of shadows in the beginning of summer so that light would come into the world in full force.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The next week was marked not by the exams they still needed to do, but by their own countdown of how many days were left until they would board the plane. Then how many hours were left, after the day had arrived and they were done celebrating the end of term with small parties between friends, plenty of kisses between themselves.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After the night they spent in Edelgard's dorm and the joy they had shared while lying in the same bed, sleeping in each other's arms in the same way that they had when their relationship was brand new.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The trip brought them new cloudless skies to explore, skies that echoed their laughter in their vast blue horizons, the pressing warmth and lack of clouds that were apparently a staple of summer in Derdriu. The beautiful streets and colorful buildings made them smile even before they had gone into them, exchanging a glance that was all love and companionship, all freedom and sunlight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All Edelgard and Ingrid, without the outside world and the clouds which threatened to obscure them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Those holidays spent in late celebration of Edelgard's birthday and the end of a crazy term that had seen the two of them being tested to the limits, were also the ones that witnessed them grow closer together once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So although yes, they were in the fanciest hotel of the entire city and sure, Ionius had been kind enough to make them reservations to the most expensive restaurant as well, it wasn't those moments that would forever be etched in Ingrid's mind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Rather, after years had long passed and her feelings about the entire situation had come and gone as tempests, drizzles and downpours, she would always smile once she recalled the long day they'd spent at the National Library, browsing over titles then choosing two poetry books before huddling on a cushion on the reading section. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She would remember the stark reds and silvers which were the pillow and the library ground, but also Edelgard and her voice as she read old historical poems which depicted love and loss in times of war. She would remember the soft blues and light yellows which were the walls and the library skylight ceiling, but also the stories that they told one another, the stories they got to live in that city they explored.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She would remember the faint pinks and golds which were their hotel room, but also Ingrid and Edelgard, the love they shared and had rekindled in hugs and open mouthed kisses. In mornings spent in bed instead of facing Derdriu and what the world would throw at them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In afternoons spent in the kitchen making cake mugs as they were prone to do when a celebration called for them, Ingrid usually doing most of the weighing, sifting, mixing and preparation whereas Edelgard was more than happy to smile at her. At the picture of them sharing a rather big hotel kitchen that was twice the size of their places back at college and equipped with an oven that would make many a chef drool.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And yet they used the microwave once again, a nod to the many nights they had improvised small mug cakes in it while going through classes, the joys of first dates and first kisses and first touches.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The cake as always wasn't a work of art but it was edible. It could be improved, being a little too sweet to Edelgard's taste and too small for Ingrid, but that was ok.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They would work on it, the blonde had thought back then as they boarded the plane back to Garreg Mach a few days before classes could begin once more. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They would work on each other individually and on themselves as a couple, and things would be fine. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yet behind it all, behind the plane that left Derdriu on that fatidical evening there were dark clouds looming and a gust of wind picking up speed, brewing a storm that wouldn't take long to break the silence with its thunders. With the words that rolled and stroked and destroyed whatever they managed to touch.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>There was a moment when the storm became too much. There always would be, as natural as it was for emotions and arguments to clog over time and turn into one unstoppable tempest. Sometimes there would be warnings, grey and black clouds gathering over the blue sky and covering the hue of what once was, the past that was longed for and couldn’t be seen after that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After all that had gathered and turned into something more, something bigger than the clouds and the emotions that fluttered around.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was funny that it happened over summer, over a night that had been clear and beautiful with the full moon casting its glance over the world and the stars bearing witness to the entire matter before they were covered by the uncertainties and the doubts that prohibited any light from being filtered into the ground. Any hope to be seen by those who had sought for it for so long. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The night that had been just like any other, until two eyes met from two different corners of the same table. When two souls, etched by tiredness and carved with one too many unvoiced feelings, recognized that maybe there had been a past that could no longer be kept, that seeking for hope in a moonless, darkened sky would be too much.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not even the candlelight on the dinner table could echo those days and those feelings, obscured as they were by the pressing darkness. They had set it with their best dishes, an obligation driving them to the habit that seemed dull in the center of the storm. The pressing shadows that had grown and developed created a space between both Ingrid and Edelgard that now felt almost absolute. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That felt impossible to bridge, or for the light to reach right there and then.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They had both stopped eating, the fancy food tasteless on their lips as much as the moment was upon their minds. Their gazes were locked in specific places of the room, the plain white walls or the dark night outside of the windows. Anywhere but at each other even though their hearts tried touching for one last time, following the candlelight that fell on their faces but surrounded them with more darkness than it did with light.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It couldn’t last forever, it had lasted for too long. And so, with the certainty that had been weighing on them for the last few months and after the last few storms, they eventually turned to one another and their eyes met for the first time all meal, perhaps all day.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Emerald and lilac that had grown close for some years now drifted apart, two souls that had met but grown restless. Too many clouds that had closed over them, distorting the sunlight of sweet summer days where things had been simpler and kinder. Where they had been simpler and kinder to one another and not so many variables had been involved.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their expressions were shrouded in mist, in the many fallouts that had been avoided or unfinished as they tried to keep things going. Edelgard could almost hear Ingrid’s arguments, the stream of apologies and explanations that no, telling her family about the relationship wasn’t an option not because of blind fear or how she wasn’t sure about El, but in order to keep them both safe.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That Ingrid’s parents wouldn’t understand that easily since her marriage to a wealthy suitor would be the only way to save the Galatea family, to ensure that their future wouldn’t be bleak. They wouldn’t let go of her that easily since she was their only leverage to a better life. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Meanwhile, Ingrid’s emerald eyes could unravel the accusations, the thoughts and complaints that had made everything seem unimportant, that had made all of her efforts add up to nothing. The small comments that slowly built into an avalanche, that had angered her, that made her scream when she had meant to speak, accuse when she had meant to make peace.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We can’t really go on like this, can’t we?” Ingrid mumbled, her voice small against the shadows that were between them, that had been between them for too long. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard simply shook her head at first, unable to really voice the feelings in her chest, the words in her mind. The last time she had tried it hadn’t gone well—rather, the two of them had stayed apart for almost a week, barely talking or trading messages. The candlelight framed Ingrid’s face more than the love she had felt for the blonde, more than the promises they had shared under the stars and the hope they had been seeking for the last few years.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She sighed, trying to gather any shred of calm and patience that still resided inside of her heart. Breathing had calmed her, once upon a time. Breathing had centered her when things had been tearing apart and the storms were coming, when she was a child and didn’t have much to fear aside from such thunders. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This time it didn’t ease the pressure in her chest, nor did it help her find the courage to actually speak. This time she needed the storm to fall, yet the mere idea of hurting Ingrid once more was enough to make her own heart ache.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe she had done this one too many times in the past. Maybe she should have thought about such an outcome, kept it in mind instead of simply pushing through. Maybe she wasn’t the only one facing a storm of her own.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"No, we… can't." It was a flat statement that was made in an emotionless voice, but one that summarized many thoughts, many emotions and past fights.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>One that echoed a tiredness that was visible to none other but Ingrid and just because she had learned to read the signs and nuances to Edelgard's feelings and how they could manifest themselves as both thunders and silent drizzles. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The smaller woman dropped the cutlery that had still been in her hands, the fancy silver abandoned with a clatter that was unlike her usually graceful movements. It was followed by a shake of her head and a sigh that was sheer exhaustion, that was regret itself made manifest. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I feel like we have been trying for so long," she went on, pushing through everything that was going on within her. The jumbling thoughts that warred in her mind, the jumbling emotions that were thunder in her heart. "But it just doesn't…"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"It doesn't work anymore." Ingrid nodded, her gaze forlorn and heavy. The same heaviness beat inside her chest, tears already rising to clog her throat with a tempest of their own. One that would have to be addressed later or else nothing would be done. "It hasn't worked for a long time. </span>
  <em>
    <span>We </span>
  </em>
  <span>haven’t worked for a long time."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The silence wasn't a calm between storms, the solace before a new one. It was the admission that they had failed. It was the storm itself, gathering more strength even though both of them had none left to fight, to yell, to complain, to amend and sew in a patchwork that was already too fragile to stand together as it was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their feelings were too fragile to prevail.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I don't know what to do." Edelgard's voice was small, dark against the candlelight. Dark, like the rest of the quarters that had seen so many facets of their relationship, but at that moment could no longer echo and remember the lighter days. "I'm so tired, Ingrid." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The only source of light and understanding was ironically the pair of emerald irises that gently settled upon hers. "I'm tired too, El."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I don't—I don't want to lose you, though."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There it was, the clinging thread of hope, the patch of blue sky and moonlight that tried peeking amidst the clouds which had covered the horizon of their future with or without their notice. The feeling was something they could both understand, to the point that neither could tell who had actually said the words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They glanced at each other, feeling such a thread that still connected their hearts and how flimsy it was. How it had been breaking with time and now, all it would take was a swift movement to sever it once and for all. How past storms had worn it down so that a mere downpour would seal the deal. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The realization that going on was madness already tore through the last remaining ties which bound them together as lovers, as two souls that were one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yet no two souls should try being one and in that moment in time they understood. That they should have thought more about their words and the storms which they allowed into their voices, the arguments that had risen in intensity and frequency as months went by.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Maybe we don't need to lose each other," Ingrid whispered, a tentative breeze that did nothing against the oppressive summer heat. "We can uh… remain as friends. You still mean a lot to me, El, no matter if we're dating or not."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>You still mean a lot to me. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Edelgard's mind clung to those words and roared against them, against the fact that for months she was sure she meant nothing to the blonde. Why, the girl hadn't even dropped a word about El to her family—how could she even say…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Although anger rose in her chest and crested into what wanted to become thunderous words, she reeled in the impulse to yell, to start yet another fallout. They didn't have the strength or will to do so; the tempest that would brew between them would have no strength or will of its own either.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The time for tempests was over and had been over for a rather long while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, I suppose… we could try that,” Edelgard whispered instead, her voice breaking at those words just as her heart too broke at the outcome. At the fact that both had deemed the whole matter impossible to solve.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At the fact that the clouds which had brewed both from the inside and the outside had won and there was really no light or no sign of one that they could see. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah uh… it would be better probably.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both knew they were talking for the mere formality, the mere distraction of it. If they had more energy to deal with it, they would both be screaming and accusing each other of all that was going wrong without really glancing at their own selves for reflection. Without seeing that the storms were in them as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yet words could be dangerous and sometimes speaking less would be better than saying more, saying too much and doing too little just as Ingrid had been told she was when it came to her family and most things in life. Sometimes staying silent was kinder than sentences scattered to the winds just as Edelgard had been told she should do more often. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Though the summers had been warm and cozy, the sunlight had always been tainted with shadows cast by the clouds. By the lashing cruelty of thunders that left untreated wounds, unnoticed to the point that right then they had become too much to bear—to the point that right then they were finally in pain or finally allowing the pain that had been caused by their conflicts to come forth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dinner was interrupted as neither of them could really think about eating. The candle was snuffed out with a sharp breath, the light which was extinguished, a mere reflection. After all their time, failure and dejection sat heavily on their chests and in their hearts. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was in their every gesture as they moved, proceeded to turn on the light, to pack the food they had ordered and that had remained untouched. They moved in a dream-like state, unable to actually make themselves understand that it was over. That it was gone and the breeze was blowing, this time taking away clouds, souls and hearts from each other.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That this time, as Ingrid left the quarters there was no smile, no hug, no good night kiss. No kind word or touch that was appropriate or expected or necessary. No act was needed, but they were certainly missed when Ingrid passed through the threshold and into the cold that seemed warmer than the house she was just leaving. Or maybe it was because the night was vast and stretched into the future without much care for which direction she would take, a contrast to the expectations that had been placed on her as a girlfriend.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well that certainly was no more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were no more pressures in their hearts to behave a certain way, to meet standards and social expectations, to be the staple girlfriends for the world to see. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On that night there was no rain and as soon as Ingrid started making her way to her own room the clouds parted, allowing the stars another peak into the reality that had changed so much while they had been nowhere to be seen.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On that night two tempests came in full force once Edelgard and Ingrid were alone, lying on the floor and crying as reality settled in. As feelings surfaced and words were overanalyzed, they let themselves be and gave in to the tides and the storms that had been suppressed, that had been quelled and ignored for too long.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On that night… the clouds parted to a moon that wept in silence, in respect for the girls who sobbed and cried, who mumbled and whispered, who cursed and lamented.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>The box in Edelgard’s hands seemed to weigh her down. It wasn’t heavy by any means, it was just a cardboard box that she had lying around from one delivery or another. Ingrid was usually the one to remind her to save the boxes, even when her entire life she would dismantle it so it lay flat and shove it in recycling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As she walked down the stairs, she heard the sound of metal clicking against a ceramic mug. Edelgard had found the key buried in her purse—the one to Ingrid’s truck that she always drove around carefully. They had their moments of fighting, but they always agreed on one thing: traffic safety. Neither of them would move an inch unless all the passengers had their seat buckles on. The music couldn’t be too loud, they were prohibited from keeping their phone out in the open. Both of the women could agree that driving with Dorothea could easily take years off of their lives. Their friend would keep a single hand on the wheel, only paying attention where it counted on the swirling roads. She assured them that speed limits were simply a suggestion, then slam on her breaks at every stop sign as if it had just appeared without warning.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard liked warnings.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She liked knowing and predicting and understanding when something had to come to a screeching halt. There are road signs for a reason—because drivers need to be aware of what’s around the bend in the road so there are no surprises.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The box doesn’t fit snugly in the passenger seat. It can’t sit flat on the fabric, so it leans as Edelgard presses the ignition, turning off the radio because she can’t think of a single song that will make the drive okay. She wanted to forget about the cardboard box, forget about the trinkets and memorabilia that she collected and placed on her counter in a small pile. It started with the things she remembered—objects that were too painfully obvious in her life that she needed to see them gone—but throughout the week it had gotten almost silly. She assumed that she wouldn’t need the spare toothbrush in the drawer, but what if Ingrid wanted the small extra button that came with her new shirt? Edelgard didn’t know how the small package ended up in her possession, but it was slipped in with the sweatshirts and earrings and extra medication.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The drive was too familiar, similar and repetitive enough that Edelgard didn’t need to give it her full attention. She wished that she had gone somewhere else simply so she wouldn’t have time to think. It would have been nice to have to focus on the new roads and parse through names that all sounded the same. Instead, the silent familiarity was uncomfortable. One day she would forget the route, she wanted to be sure of that, but for now it always felt like driving home.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her mind knew how to go from her house, to the office, to Ingrid's, and to their favorite coffee shop. It would be easier if she could erase the last two, or at least get her phone to stop suggesting that she head in that direction whenever it connected to the Bluetooth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hubert said there was a way to turn it off, but she had yet to take the time to thoroughly erase those trails of worn grass. It was too soon to scrub everything clean.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It also felt too soon to feel as free as she did. Edelgard hated the small voice in the back of her head that only seemed to grow as each hour passed. It told her how she had made the right decision, that she would be able to get up in the morning and only worry about herself. There was no chance of a fight, no chance of sitting at dinner in silence as they both processed long days that were too difficult to explain. Neither of them wanted to explain, either, it was just better to eat in silence and bid one another goodnight early.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The drive was short and Edelgard hoped that nothing in the box had been tossed around. It was unlikely with her driving, but she would feel bad if she were to accidentally break anything precious. There was no need to shatter things that were already broken, no need to cut a wound deeper. Ingrid would be free and she would have time to think, there was never a need for them to whip words or cut one another's throats.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She wanted to give Ingrid a warning, but she had already sent a text not twenty minutes prior that she would be driving over. The moment wasn't going to be big at all, was it? There was no need to dwell on returning items that were foreign to her, even if just a week and a half prior they were Edelgard's just as much as they were Ingrid's. Turning off the engine, she grabbed the box and exited the car. Ingrid's truck was in it's usual spot, even though part of her knew it would be easier if she wasn't there at all. She wouldn't be able to leave the box at the door—some of the items were worth money—but she let her brain entertain the thought nonetheless. It was a harmless one. Edelgard rang the doorbell, even though her hand itched to grab the spare key under the third stone on the left.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"One second!" her voice called from elsewhere in the house. Edelgard tapped her toe against the step, not wanting to hear what she was doing. There was never a need for Ingrid to ever let her in, this was new to their dynamic and felt like a sheet of glass had been hung between them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Ingrid opened the door, her hair was cut short.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard nearly gasped, seeing that the all-too-familiar braid was no longer hanging down her back. It was always so thick, something that Edelgard could run her fingers gently through while Ingrid yanked a brush through knots as violently as she could manage. It was all gone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"H-hey." Edelgard's pre-written speech about the items in the box had already fallen away. "Your hair."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yeah," Ingrid said, taking a more protective stance and shifting away. "I was hanging out with Felix and he said maybe it was time. So we just... chopped it."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Oh," Edelgard uttered. She didn't know if she was supposed to feel glad or insulted that she would have never expected Ingrid to take such a stand. Edelgard wanted to ask a million questions: how her father reacted, if she had even told her father, how it felt to have the wind tickle her neck. She felt barred from all of the inquiries, so she let them rest. "It looks nice."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Thanks."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, I have your things,” Edelgard said, holding out the box. “There’s probably more, but this is what I could think of immediately.” Ingrid took it from her hands, leaning out the door so as to not let her bare feet touch the pavement. “If you realize anything’s gone, it’s fine to text.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“El, this is—” Ingrid was balancing the cardboard box in one arm, the other plucking out a flannel that was technically given to Edelgard. It had been one of Ingrid’s, but she was fond of the color. Her wardrobe had always been more formal, but it had been nice to surround herself in Ingrid’s scent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I hope things are better with you and your father,” Edelgard added, and Ingrid bristled. “I’m still in your corner, you know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This is literally your mug,” Ingrid said, picking up the blue ceramic dish. Sure, it had been Edelgard’s, but Ingrid used it every time they had coffee or tea or made mug cakes in the microwave. It was Ingrid’s more than anything. “You can’t just dump anything that reminds you of me at my door.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I handed them to you,” Edelgard pointed out in a moment where pettiness had overridden her initial goal. Ingrid, with short hair that she had gotten rid of, stood in her doorway with a box of memories. Borrowed clothing, lost necklaces and earrings, small mementos from trips they had taken together. All the things that Edelgard wouldn’t need anymore. “Look. I understand that this is hard, but I don’t want to make things worse.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You could have just said that you want me completely out of your life, Edelgard,” Ingrid said with a frown set deep on her face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard liked warnings. There were all of the road signs and lights and none of them could have warned her that Ingrid would forsake her nickname so soon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Really?” Edelgard raised her eyebrow. “I wanted to make sure you had all of your things.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But </span>
  <em>
    <span>these</span>
  </em>
  <span> things? I get the keys but—” the anger was building in Ingrid “—you know what? It's not worth it. Thank you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard wanted to fight back, but she stood frozen on the stairs, lost in all the insults she could throw at the hurting woman. They were both hurting. Edelgard had given back her gifts; Ingrid had given her back her nickname.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They owed each other nothing anymore, all the favors evened out with wounds left in their wake.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard bid Ingrid goodbye quickly, returning to her car in a swarm of feelings that didn’t match up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She cried on the way home to the blaring voices of a talk show, letting Ingrid’s voice be left behind in the roar of the wind.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>The metal in her hand was sharp and hot, it left an imprint in her palm and its edge could cut even through her callouses. Ingrid clenched her fist tighter and swallowed the scream that her chest was begging her to let out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Desperation that had been born so many years ago and slowly transformed into frustration, anger, sadness.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tides of an ocean that had frozen and broken to be melted once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A storm with gray skies that never seemed to recede. Not anymore, at least.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid couldn’t remember what color the sky was when the sun set after a clear day, but she could remember Edelgard’s eyes and she was sure that those two were similar in the eye of her mind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ingrid?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And the voice that called for her wasn’t the one she wanted to hear.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ingrid, please, don’t be overdramatic.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh no—it was so far from what she had wanted to hear.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She had danced to their music, Ingrid had done as she had been asked of. She had been the perfect daughter Edelgard had accused her of before. Ingrid had done everything she had been asked of in hopes the future, </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>future, was hers to decide upon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was never that easy, though.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was never the plan.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid was never the one to decide.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her clenched fist trembled as the muscles in her forearm twitched, pushed to a limit she didn’t care to respect anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ingrid, this is for your own good…” Her father, the man she had respected and looked up to, looked at her with the same shade of green in his eyes as hers. The same blonde hair, the same thin, yet sharp eyebrows she had learned to read so many years ago. “Your career is alright and your title will do us good, but it isn’t enough. You know that, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>You know that, right?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Had she?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If you could at least consider the suitors...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That was never the deal.” Her voice was strange in her own ears, muffled, sharp, rough, unknown.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her hands kept trembling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The key, hot and sharp and dangerous.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid was numb to it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on now, I expect better of you, Ingrid, than being so naive.” The man raised both his eyebrows and pushed the papers on the desk toward her. “You knew our position was precarious, the possibility of us getting out of this on our own was slim at the best...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But you said…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know what I said, but things are different now.” He sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. “You’re an adult, you’re bound to understand. This isn’t a game, Ingrid, it has never been. You have better sense than this, I know you.” Did he?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Did he, truly?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Did she, even?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her hand opened and she looked at the key her father had given her, stained with fresh red she hadn’t felt when spilled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You said…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I said what I had to for your own sake!” He stood up, leveling a heavy, scolding look. She was a kid once more, she was a kid and she had been careless and he was disappointed in her again because her dress was torn or her knees scrapped or her friends had said how she was the fastest of them all when racing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was a kid, powerless, directionless, alone, scared.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid blinked and saw the key once more, the one her father had given her when he had so cheerfully said that she should take these handsome men that wanted to marry her for a ride, why not take them to the sole family house they still had?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Why not take them to the house in the woods she had taken Edelgard a time ago, secretly?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You said…” He had said that, he had said she would be free. He had promised her that she would be free if she was to follow what he asked of her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Now there she was: twenty-three and still under his thumb, fooled and deceived, following a path she had put up with in hopes of being free to soar and fly by the winds of her own wishes, her own volition instead of the ones of her father and his obsession with a past she didn’t feel any attachment to.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ingrid…” Was that a sad voice? Was that regret?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Could he even feel regret for the things she had done for him? The things she had done he didn’t know anything about?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Would he feel regret if she told him she had let go of the one she loved for him?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For their family?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Would he be happy and proud if Ingrid told him she had stopped fighting for Edelgard if it meant she was to follow his directions for what she believed were the last years she would have to?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And the scream she had contained for so many years finally broke her in its way to break free.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She wasn’t a kid anymore. She was scared, she was hurt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Please, Ingrid, be reasonable..”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was alone and she didn’t have anything else to lose.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I said no!” The key, stained with her blood, bounced on the wall and clattered before disappearing on the floor, in a corner she didn’t care to look at. “You promised me! I ruined my life for you. I thought you would get off my face if I got that stupid diploma and tried to save the poor excuse of a business you run!” She pointed at him, at his surprised face, at his ideas for her, at everything he represented and she had humanized in his silhouette.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s gotten into you?” He turned around, looking for the key she had thrown away alongside her good-daughter attitude and her fears.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You lied to me!” Ingrid felt how her blood rushed and the hammering of her heart stormed her ears. “You promised me you would get off my face for once and yet you still want to control my life!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I just want the...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t care!” For this she had let go of Edelgard? For this she had spent sleepless nights and endured torturous, endless semesters studying something she didn’t love?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For this she had wasted years of her life?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She wanted to scream at him and make him responsible for everything that had happened unknown to him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Could she?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She couldn’t.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Couldn’t she?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid didn’t want to think.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Emotions were tearing her apart, the breaking of an ocean that had frozen and melted and frozen with no pause, no respite, no peace.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No more, no more, no more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m done…” and she said that more to herself than to her father, who finally seemed to look at her and truly </span>
  <em>
    <span>see </span>
  </em>
  <span>her. Who looked at her with his eyes the same shade of green and saw his daughter broken and tired.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lonely and devastated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Who saw the one he had brought to the world and couldn’t understand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The one he didn’t try to understand until now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid turned around and left, deaf to the cries of her father asking her to return. Blind to the sight of her siblings exchanging looks and following her around the house, never stopping her as she grabbed a few things and left.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mute to the questions her mind supplied endlessly and her heart didn’t feel like answering.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid moved on. She moved on and left that day and the consequences of her actions in the past.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She left her father’s hopes behind, her years of college and title she was never to get back behind. Her family name and her relatives behind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She left her old home behind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her heart carried the memories, however, of better days, when she and Edelgard were incomplete, but together—were a mess but together.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Now, she was whole, yet alone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the sky Ingrid discovered a myriad of colors she had never seen before, through the clouds that slowly made their way and as she learned to read through their patterns, through the storms that would brew over her to fade away following a circle she hadn’t understood before. In the sky she found the purest of blues and the richest of golds, she found so many colors and the clouds were but a part of it all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid wished she could have seen it before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was whole, yet alone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And, sometimes, when the memories were too heavy for her to bear with a stoic face, she would crumble in the loneliness of her house. She would cry and the burning trail of her tears brought back the shame and pain every time she shed them.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Clouds were beautiful. Edelgard let her gaze meander through the fields of white, skipping over streams of blue sky to land on the next fluffy cloud. She wondered what it would be like to be a cloud. What would it be like to just drift through the sky, without a care in the world? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Life was probably simpler to be a cloud. She wouldn’t have to worry about her future, her life, or her emotions. The wind would carry her and she would be free to simply just exist. Human existence was so… difficult. There were so many things to consider, so many things to keep track of. Usually, Edelgard was not one to complain about the tedium of what had to be done to keep moving forward, but things were tiring. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was very good at keeping on schedule, keeping ahead, staying prepared—so good that this was something that she even took pride in. Her ability to juggle multiple responsibilities and move forward ever so steadily was not to be taken lightly. If she wanted it, she would get it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>To think that she could even be at a point in her life where she was recognizing that she was tired, who was she even? Long ago, she would have ignored all the warning signs and kept right on going, working herself to a point beyond exhaustion. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Edelgard?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm?” Edelgard pulled her gaze back from the clouds to focus on Hubert.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you alright?” He was gathering papers and files from her desk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just a little tired,” Edelgard admitted. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Have you considered sleeping?” Hubert frowned at the three empty cups of tea on Edelgard’s desk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I have.” Edelgard took a sip of her iced coffee pointedly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And how is that going for you?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard sighed. “Once we get this project finalized, I will take a vacation. How does that sound?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll believe it when I see the pictures,” Hubert grumbled as he left her office. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As much as Edelgard recognized that she was tired, sometimes, old habits die hard. Hubert could be so dramatic, though. It wasn’t like he didn’t have access to her planner, it was clear that she was going to be taking some time off in the near future—now if she could just finish everything so that she could actually take this time off without needing to worry about work, that would be perfect.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If someone had asked her all those years ago if she could imagine herself at this point in her life, her answer would be… no but yes. Edelgard always knew what she wanted in terms of a career. In a sense, she knew </span>
  <em>
    <span>where</span>
  </em>
  <span> she wanted to be, but she just didn’t know what that would look like. In the quiet of her own office, she let herself just sit for the moment. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If there was anything that she could’ve told herself from all those years ago, it would be to take a break. Not that she was ready to hear that. Every minute of her day back then was crammed full: different obligations and responsibilities and relationships and friendships threatening to tear her asunder. Who would she be if she wasn’t doing something? Who would she be if she just let herself sit quietly for a moment? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were too many people to please, too many things to do. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sometimes she wondered if she and Ingrid would have been okay if young Edelgard was more like her now. The thoughts of countless what-ifs and could-have-beens haunted Edelgard’s dreams on occasion. They were fewer and further between nowadays but she thought about it all the same. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not that there was any use in thinking those thoughts. That was the whole point of the break up anyway. Neither of them were ready, neither of them were quite right so to speak. The right people at the wrong time. Edelgard laughed to herself, what a strangely poetic thought. Maybe she was more tired than she assumed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So maybe Hubert was annoyingly correct that she was long overdue for a break. Even her days off were filled with crises and fires that she had to come in and put out. Her home was as much as her office as the building itself. Baby steps, Edelgard reminded herself. Put out this fire, take her time off, relax, then work on her work-life balance. Ironic that she would have to put in work to ensure that she wasn’t working so much—that felt counter intuitive. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was going to spend every second of her actual days off living like a cloud, she decided. Edelgard just needed to leave the weight of work and the earth behind, and reach for the skies.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Garreg Mach has changed and yet remained the same for Edelgard. It has changed alongside her for Ingrid.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid had left her natal Galatea years ago, she had bid a wordless farewell to her father, a tearful goodbye to her siblings and had gone back to the place she had hoped for the best and had received just enough to keep clinging to it. Ingrid was there after their break-up, when the clouds of storm had finally cleared up and a blue, untouchable sky had appeared above her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid was there when Edelgard left, she came back there after her fight with her family.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid had found herself in the open skies of Garreg Mach that slowly turned once more golden, purple, orange and violet. A shade of blue that she could look at and smile with a content heart.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid had found herself back in Edelgard’s presence, a chance meeting in the middle of a city that was their shared home.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid has changed alongside Garreg Mach and she moves in the city as if it is her own. They stand close, as they used to when they were friends, but not as close when they were falling for each other. Not hand in hand as they used to when they shared a bed and a single feeling, but close as old friends who never let go of the fondness they had for each other. The silence in between them is one they know and have breached before. It only takes courage and the willingness to do so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It only takes the courage to do so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard knows that and she is still hesitant.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid knows that and she is still doubtful.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They shift weight in sync as if they hadn’t been apart for years.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How is Hubert?” Ingrid asks, one hand holding a box and the other burrowing deep in her pocket. The last time they walked like this Ingrid wouldn’t have hesitated to reach for Edelgard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Last time isn’t now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard laughs. “Grouchy as usual, and a little overbearing. I swear it's like he’s my mother. How are your siblings?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid shrugs, “They’re doing alright, I think they’ve caught my rebellious streak though.” She smirks remembering their last conversations together, how slowly but surely her three siblings have sided with her after the big fall-out with her father.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh?” Edelgard raises an eyebrow and for a single second it feels as if time hasn’t passed and they were the same when they enjoyed those moments of respite in between the storms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But there are no storms now. Not anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, my parents aren’t too happy about me leaving the nest and doing what I want so they’re definitely not happy that my siblings are either.” Ingrid, however, was the one to break the ice. Her siblings will have a gentler time forging their own path.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” That is a surprise. Edelgard remembers what a faithful daughter Ingrid was. She remembers the times her own irritation got the best of her when Ingrid decided in favor of her parents instead of their own relationship. “You left?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, my father was never going to let me do what I wanted as long as I was under his thumb. There were no benefits to sticking around, there probably weren’t any ever but—” Ingrid shrugs, “—I needed to have my own two feet under me before I could leave.” It took her long enough to break free from that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Ingrid feared it had been too late.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s understandable.” Edelgard shrugs this time. They talk easily about anything, that is something that always mesmerized Edelgard even after they were apart and she hadn't seen her for the longest of times.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There is no need for empty words between them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard’s smile turns slightly sour.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yes, no need for empty words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about me?” Edelgard repeats the question, giving herself just enough time to decide what answer she wants to go with.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What have you been up to?” Ingrid’s eyes on her are curious and sincere.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She deserves an equally sincere answer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard smiles a little ruefully. “Working. I’m a project manager at my parent's firm. You know how it is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ingrid returns the smile understandingly. “Yeah. So what are you doing out here then? A work trip?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, no. I’m taking some time off, just needed time to relax for myself. I’ve got Hubert fielding all my urgent calls.” Edelgard can only imagine the amount of work Hubert has on his desk right now. Maybe she should tell </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span> to take a vacation next.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh?” It’s Ingrid’s turn to be surprised.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What, I can’t take a vacation?” Edelgard teases, giving Ingrid a fake frown.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No!” Ingrid almost shouts it too forcefully. “You just never seemed to want to take time off. There was always something else that you were worried about.” Or maybe burning herself out would be more accurate. Ingrid saw how Edelgard would overwork herself to the point of fatigue.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“People change and grow, Ingrid.” Edelgard keeps from pointing out Ingrid has as well for what she can tell in the little time they’ve been talking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The sky over them is blue and clear and the wind is gentle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>People change and grow as the seasons come and go.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyway, I’ve got to go pick up the keys to the place I’m staying at.” Edelgard fumbles in her bag for her car keys.  “It was really nice seeing you again, Ingrid. Maybe if you’re feeling up to it, we can grab coffee and continue catching up sometime? I’m here for almost two weeks.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I would really like that.” Ingrid pulls out her phone from her pocket and hands it to Edelgard. “Here, why don’t you add your number and I’ll text you?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Edelgard hums as her fingers fly over the screen. When she finally hands the phone back to Ingrid, there’s a familiar smile on her face. “I’m holding you to that, Ingrid. I’ll see you around.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With that, she turns on her heel and leaves, heading back towards her car. Ingrid watches her go, waving as she pulls out of the parking lot and down the street. Finally, she looks down at her phone and a nostalgic joy washes over her entire body at the newly added contact.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>El.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Moniiiiiiiii mi amore! Happy birthday to you and I hope you have one hell of a great day! I’m really grateful that I got to meet you, to read your amazing work and to get to know you better during this year. You’re an incredible, talented person and hell yeah for all of your work and amazingness as archbishop of the church of Edelgrid! With that being said, I wish you all the Edelgrid and Gayshin love! - Lina.</p>
<p>Moni carloooooo uwu HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU SOFT ASS BINCH. Eat like 300 sushi and like at least one cake on my behalf yeah? (Also you old now better start sleeping earlier or your skin will be crusty D: ) ANYWAY I’M SO DELIGHTED I GOT TO MEET YOU THIS LAST YEAR YOU BINCHO. This last wild and crazy year was so much more tolerable getting to hang out with you lol. Thank you for putting up with ALL my dumb writing shenanigans (and joining in with more than a few) and also matching me in all my spiteful endeavors. Anywhoooooo love u BINCH have a good birthday &lt;3 -Reun</p>
<p>MI AMORE, BITCH THAT FIGHTS WITH ME BEARS IN THE FOREST!!! Get all the sushi, get all the cake, get all the Genshin, you deserve the WORLD! As your senpai I ask of you to GET IT ALL!! Archbishop of Edelgrid, Geo Queen, Geo Archon, talented writer, you have it all! FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!! I’m so happy and grateful to have known you and to get not only to talk to you, but play, write, craft stories together!! Thank you for all your energy, we NEED it!! Love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! - Kuro</p>
<p>Moni!!!!! Happy birthday &lt; 3 !!! There was no dying like Odessa in this fic (it was under consideration)!! Thank u for being an amazing friend and a wonderful creator, and love u !! —Molls (uwu)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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